coldfingers
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Posts posted by coldfingers
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I already grow 2 canary palms, and 2 chusan fan palms and they are really doing quite well, although the bases are thinner than they should be. The leaflet spines are vvery long, and the Canary palms are growing much faster than the Chusan palms (something that should really be the other way around), but it's 5 foot now, and the chusans are catching up.
I'm willing to give the coconut palms a go even if they die just for an experiment. The best idea for that though would to be to grow them in controlled conditions, ie 20C with a fitting UVA lamp - could well work, then in the summer bring them out in the prolonged heat and sunny periods we have, and provide some natural watering afterwards. In the Canary Islands of course coconut palms are grown and survive in winter temperatures of 17-19C quite well, plus the Canary Islands are famed for being quite cloudy at times in the winter.
Thanks for that info Stephen, I have a canary palms I have had indoors but put out into the garden to enjoy some sunshine. I was wondering if I would have to bring it in during the winter but if your's is flourishing up in the Wirral then I am sure mine would do OK down here in the south.
Interestingly a neighbour has a fig tree in her garden and this is the first year I have seen the fruit grow really well, large and plump (a bit like me
) and if only we had another few weeks of 20C weather I reckon they would ripen as well. -
These humming bird moths are seen down here every spring and through the summer, I am not sure if they overwinter but I reckon they must do as I have seen one in february hovering by a hyacinth in flower.
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Current temp at 10:56am is 18.4C
breezy with broken cloud and sun ocassionaly breaking through.
Seemed to rain heavy in the night but only 1mm in gauge so perhaps it was the wind in the trees.
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Overnight very rainy (37mm in guage!!! B) ) and a min temp of 15.3C.
Currently breezy, 16.8C, damp but no rain at the moment.
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There are increasing signs here of leaves starting to turn and fall here, autumn is slowly arriving. :blink:
This may be down to the hot weather in July, although when the leaves started falling at this time last year I thought it was due to the dry weather in July last year. Maybe it's just autumn.
I remember going to the New Forest in early october on a few ocassions and the leaves where already lovely colours, there had been early frosts those years though.
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Time 10:26am
Current conditions, overcast sky, damp with about 6 drops of rain in the guage
temperature 18.7C and a light breeze.
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An awful lot of trees round here have had brown leaves since early July, sadly the effects of a very dry year.
A Hazel Contorta in my garden now thinks it is spring as it lost all it's leaves in July and is now growing some more since the heavy rain we have had at times in September :lol: Otherwise some trees are begining to change colour but it's hard to believe it is because it is Autumn as we have yet to get any Autumn weather, still stuck in summer here. :o
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Sorry Coldfingers. Didn't read the poster! Could be what you say, A Stevenson screen would always be useful. Not much more above 21C recorded in the Met Office sites on the South coast, but it really was a terrific day!
Paul
Anyone know how to make one? can't afford a real one.
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If you recorded 25.9C, ribster, maybe you need to check your recording equipment! It is highly unlikely it was quite that warm. The Met office has the top temp today as 22C at Great Malvern. I can't think you were nearly 3C above that! Just think; it was cooler than you thought and you didn't even know it! We had about 21C down here. Long may it last. Winter will come, with short, damp days, soon enough. Enjoy the unexpected Autumn sunshine and warmth!
Paul
Actually it was me coldfingers that recorded that temp in my garden. We had a sweltering sunny day all day long and my son fishing on the pier got sunburnt. It was recorded with a cheap (Lidl) weather station but the two min/max thermometers on both sides of the shed recorded the same temp. Perhaps it could be the wood of the shed warming in the sun and giving a false reading but one side of the shed was in the shade all day and didn't feel warm. Sunday the local TV reckoned Bognor was the warmest in the country but I was in Southampton
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Well we were rather spoilt by the cold extending well in to April this year, so I guess we have to pay for that
I'm sure it will turn cold soon enough, still only September yet.
Yeh you're right. Overeager
It's just that I remember one year on Oct 1 when the frost persisted until lunchtime and that was in the new Forest and you don't get much further South. -
Can anyone give me any hope that this prolonged warm spell will go away soon. Temp 25.9C here today and people still walking around in shorts and bare midriffs. Please can it end soon! I have had enough
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They reckon it is best to pick the sloes after the first frost has softened them. However if you do that you often find someone else has beaten you to it and the bushes are bare. The next best thing is pick them and put in freezer overnight.
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Interesting, although I do not see any talk of February or March in the MetO forecast (certainly not March as it is a spring month!), just 'later winter', and indeed there is no real talk of mild at the onset of winter either, other than by implication.
March may be a Spring month but you would be surprised how often March bring snow showers, they are not unknown in April either.
Also I am not too sure where the term 'even larger teapot' originated. I have more than fifty years of watching winter to my credit and yes this new century has been a bit of a disappointment but don't go away with the idea that last century was without it's warmer spells.
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you take my meaning a little too far.
If he posts thats its gonna be cold, thousands of people on this website who know next to nothing about the weather and only care if its gonna snow will read it and get excited, thus if it is wrong then they will be disspointed.
i don't want a debate, if u disagree leave it at that.
Will it snow in Bognor?
I love cold and snow, I know next to nothing, I am entertaining hopes of snow this winter, but then I always do even when the LRF is for mild. I found the idea of a low CET very interesting but wont get disappointed if it doesn't come off. I promise there will be no recriminations from me.
Anyway it's well known all we get here is sunshine
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Thankyou for the help chaps. I have to say I do like the christmas trees and ivy etc idea. Although I somewhat feel my neighbours might have something to say about it!! Or even might shoot me.
Doesn't ivy grow like mad and get everywhere?
No room on my balcony to swing a cat let alone play ball! I have about 3metres by 1/2 metre of space to play with. I have some tubs with rose, (dead mint!) sunflower, and my tomotoes. Tomatoes 1 end and the tubs the other. I also have 2 boxes hanging on the railings at one end. The other end I left free as I use it to dry my bed sheets and washing over!!
Silk flowers sounds good then I dont have to water them.
I'm only a new bee miss green fingers really! My Pansys went over in the boxes about a month ago. Although I recon this was due to lack of watering after being on holiday. Do I throw these out or cut them back? Do they regrow the year after?I have 2 carnations (?) that are still going at the moment. Do they survive til spring? Lots to learn!With the carnations, if you have any new shoots without flowers, break the shoots off and just push into the soil and they should grow again next year. make sure they are well watered for at least a week after planting the shoots, that way you can increase your plants. The carnations I have in the garden at the moment came from shoots I broke off from flowers in a bouquet someone gave me.
You can try cutting the pansies back as the winter pansies I have flowered into summer by doing that but I am not sure if the winter pansies are a different variety. Worth a try anyway.
The ivy should stay contained in a container
oops, self-evident really! Just cut it back when it gets out of hand. Hyacinth and small variety of narcisus or crocus would look good in the boxes or snowdrops.
I can't grow the snowdrop or crocus 'cos I have a thieving squirrel that waits until they come into flower then calmly digs them up and eats the bulb. What with that and the neighbours cat that thinks my flower beds are the dirt box it's owner doesn't provide
, you can think yourself lucky to have a balcony they can't reach. -
Long range forecasts are interesting and long may people continue making them 70% is better than nothing......
Well certainly for down here last winter's LRF by the MetO was 100% accurate. We had exactly what they said, less precipitation than average and colder than average.
Hope they can achieve such success this year but if not I wont be moaning about it.
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Try substituting the gin for vodka, makes a nice change, also gives you a half bottle of vodka to drink as well as the gin
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Firethorn looks good too. Puncture your football though if you play on your balcony.
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holly and ivy :lol: don't forget the mistletoe, curses only grows on trees, how big a balcony you got
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Christmas Trees
Lichen
'bout all you can get away with up in your area OON :lol: -
Hiya,
As most of my summer plants are over/almost over I am wondering what I can put in their place for winter. Are there any plants that would be happy on the balcony in pots, or in the boxes I have hanging on the railings?
Are there any plants that would flower or look good in winter but also be over to use the pots again in the spring??
Thanks in advance!
Pansy, polyanthus, primula.
Winter flowering heather.
variagated Ivy for trailing.
you could try to find very early flowering bulbs but how early they flower depends of course on whether we have a mild or colder winter.
The pansy I can usually get away with here on the coast, not sure about Winchester.
Young Cordyline also look good in containers, especially the red variety, need a friend with a garden to pass them on to when they get big though.
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After reading a lot of posts on here I am begining to feel a little sorry for the Met Office. It seems for some they can never get it right. If they warn of gales and they aren't as bad as expected then they are castigated, if they don't warn of gales and we get them they fare even worse. These Islands we live in are notoriously difficult to forecast weather for, (possibly second only to Iceland) I think the people at the meto do a really good job, for short range forecast I would choose them above anyone.
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My question would have to be "who's worrying?".
A lot of people on here harbour secret or perhaps unconcious desires to see an ex hurricane make landfall in the UK as a powerful extra-tropical system. Orthers are just interested in where the track will be, using theirselves as the quite natural reference point.
the "what if", "where next", and "where now" questions are all part of the fun in following tropical systems.
Totaly agree crimsone, I just love the speculation, if a slight degree of disappointment follows, well that's life!
I doubt anyone really worries. I lived through the '87 storm but it hasn't frightened me off storms, I still love them. The old man reckons I am nuts.
Back on topic, the Meto chart puts a nice low over Ireland so that's good enough for me.
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The thing that sticks in my mind about that storm was leaving my father-in-law's house at 10:00pm and finding it was many degrees warmer than when we went in. Not what you expect in October.
I slept through the best of the storm but woke in the middle of it to find the power out and the wind howling and rattling the old sash windows, The wind was so severe we brought our 15 month daughter into our bedroom as we were worried the chimney stack would collapse through the roof.
The most enduring memory though was the picture of a partially collapsed building in Brighton and the report about one poor man who felt it collapsing and dashed for the door as the floor fell away below him. He was left hanging onto the door threshold until he was rescued. Poor feller was also stark naked! :blink:
So many trees were toppled on the Goodwood estate that from the air it resembled Tunguska
Nearly forgot to say that so many trees were down that Bognor was completely cut off by road, and there were more than leaves on the railway lines :lol: :lol: :lol:
) and if only we had another few weeks of 20C weather I reckon they would ripen as well.
Sunday 1st October 2006
in Weather reports
Posted
Dry but cloudy day, max Temp 21.3C
Wind very variable from a breeze one minute to gusts to force 8 the next.